Last night I imaged a second object possibly from the NROL-101 launch. It is in an approximately 10500 km, 58.8 degree inclined MEO orbit. It is slowly variable, with a peak-to-peak period of about 3 minutes. I suspect this is the Centaur upper stage from the launch. 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120031632020 17 75 0243485+439290 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120032352020 17 75 0333262+393930 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120033602020 17 75 0440094+288330 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120034252020 17 75 0509540+219030 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120034642020 17 75 0524389+178570 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120035622020 17 75 0557017+074860 15 R 99998 20 083B 4353 G 20201120035822020 17 75 0603026+053450 15 R The other object observed on the 18th, possibly the payload USA 310, was also imaged again: 99999 20 083X 4353 G 20201120000932020 17 75 0119571+575380 15 S 99999 20 083X 4353 G 20201120001932020 17 75 0258019+551090 15 S 99999 20 083X 4353 G 20201120002932020 17 75 0418038+483070 15 S 99999 20 083X 4353 G 20201120003832020 17 75 0511050+398600 15 S ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canon EOS 80D + Samyang 2.0/135 mm + DCF77 clock + ASTRORECORD What these numbers mean: http://www.satobs.org/position/IODformat.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: a possible third object has been reported in private to me by an observer (with short observing arc). That one appears to be in a lower orbit, with different inclination. Relationship to NROL-101 is uncertain, but possible. I tried to find it last night but weather in that part of the night did not cooperate. Preliminary elset for the variable object (eccentricity and mean motion still very preliminary, but you should be able to find it with this elset): NROL-101 Centaur rb (?) 1 99998U 20083B 20325.05807751 0.00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 04 2 99998 58.8264 292.5498 0070000 327.1858 32.4277 4.01148244 00 Updated elset for the other object: NROL-101 payload USA 310 (?) 1 99999U 20083X 20324.93465283 0.00000000 00000-0 00000+0 0 01 2 99999 58.5353 293.3794 0007884 281.4110 78.5436 3.77320712 02 RMS 0.005 from 11 observations Nov 18.17 - 20.03 UT VERY APPROXIMATE search elset for the possible third object (I reccomend a plane search): UNID 1 99998U 20823UN 20323.77270931 0.00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 08 2 99998 46.7639 283.7694 0001341 212.7426 242.4519 7.72552504 08 The weather was interchangingly cloudy and clear. In the early evening, had a misadventure where I noted it was clearing, hastilly set up the video in the attic window and outside into the courtyard with my photo camera: to realise, once outside, that I had forgotten my keys and locked myself out! Of course, my Girlfriend was not at home (I keep a spare set in her appartment) but luckily one of the neighbours has a key of her and let me into my gf's appartment - where it turned ouyt that teh spare set was at her keychain, so not in the house. Meanwhile, it started to rain seriously, while the attic window was still open and the WATEC set up there! To cut a long story short: soaked attic, soaked camera and lens, which however seems to have survived. - Marco ----- Dr Marco Langbroek - SatTrackCam Leiden, the Netherlands. e-mail: sattrackcam_at_langbroek.org Cospar 4353 (Leiden): 52.15412 N, 4.49081 E (WGS84), +0 m ASL Cospar 4355 (Cronesteyn): 52.13878 N, 4.49937 E (WGS84), -2 m ASL Station (b)log: http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com Twitter: _at_Marco_Langbroek ----- _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Fri Nov 20 2020 - 12:45:36 UTC
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